The possible roles of culture, gender, and age-related factors in decision making about socioscientific issues (SSIs) have been underexplored. To study the impact of culture and cross-cultural understanding on students' decision-making, and how these impacts are possibly mediated by age and gender-related variables, 106 11-13 year old students and…

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has a huge collection of unique and curious objects from the natural world that have been loaned to us by HM Revenue and Customs after being seized at the UK border. Among the turtle shells and snake skins, the strangest of these is perhaps the freestanding rhino-foot ash tray. This single object can open up…

Biodiversity is the result of long-term evolution. It is one of the fundamental global problems of today as it is declining in space and time. The aim of this research was to determine the relationship of man and nature and to analyze the influence of variables such as gender, age, pet ownership, cultivation of plants, and perception of popular…

We developed a survey to measure education program participants' perceptions of snakes. This survey was created from new and existing items, pilot tested, and edited to final items representing attitude and behavior dimensions. We implemented the final survey as pre- and posttest among participants of snake education programs in Athens, Georgia…

In a webinar series called the Wild Side of STEAM, educators at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute introduce young viewers to these lesser-known or unusual careers. The free webinar series, launched in October 2020, informs viewers about the variety of careers available in science, technology, engineering, arts, and…

Vertebrate species knowledge, a key factor for conserving biodiversity, is a compulsory part of school curricula. This study evaluated the vertebrate species knowledge of sixth-grade German grammar school pupils (aged 11-13) to investigate the influence of socio-demographic factors (gender, size of hometown, mother tongue), personal expectations…

Most contemporary reforms in American science education center around ideas of improving student science literacy (Dauer & Forbes, 2016) with the goal of enabling informed engagement on scientific issues (NRC, 2012). This is particularly true for decisions that affect the public interest, including public health, the environment, and the…

Resource degradation is a chief concern related to increased recreational of U.S. public lands. The Seven Leave No Trace (LNT) Principles are used to educate visitors how to reduce recreational impacts. This study sought to understand Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) hikers' behavioral intent toward LNT practices. A quantitative…

Plant awareness disparity (PAD), formerly known as plant blindness, refers to the fact of overlooking or failing to perceive plants, perhaps due to poor 'species literacy'. Despite numerous efforts made by scientists and educators over the years, PAD is still present in students at all educational levels. An assessment was carried out on 259…

This article describes a lesson in which fourth-grade students create a habitat for terrapins while reducing erosion. A client and their needs were presented to the students: The city purchased a piece of shoreline on the bay previously owned by a private company. The company had started to develop the land, exposing soil up to the water's edge.…

In 2014, urban wildlife refuge managers throughout Southern California responded to a challenge issued by United States Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) leadership to connect the urban dwelling population in the region with wildlife and urban refuges. Five years later, the SoCal Urban Wildlife Refuge Project's reach and impact are significant.…

Currently available (classical) testing procedures for the network autocorrelation can only be used for falsifying a precise null hypothesis of no network effect. Classical methods can be neither used for quantifying evidence for the null nor for testing multiple hypotheses simultaneously. This article presents flexible Bayes factor testing…

It is proposed that young children may develop a felt sense of God through an attachment to nature that parallels their attachment to significant people in their lives. Children learn through their senses and young children experience a sense of awe and wonder when immersed in nature. Research supports the argument that children who are exposed to…

Environmental education researchers and policy makers acknowledge the need to act responsibly toward the environment. Yet, teachers do not always know how to help students translate environmental knowledge into sustainable action. This study examines the implementation of locally developed place-based education (PBE) curriculum for middle school…

The lesson set in this article describes an introductory learning experience using wildlife camera-based citizen science projects hosted on Zooniverse (http://www.zooniverse.org). Wildlife camera projects were chosen due to the charisma of the study organisms, student engagement while looking at images, ease of access to projects, ease of teaching…